Month: October 1988

BEATS & PIECES

LIVEWIRE PROMOTIONS’ Prestatyn weekender on November 4/5/6 will be the busiest yet with over 4,000 booked in already (it’s doubtful but there may be last minute room left on 01-364 1212, no day passes being available so don’t turn up on spec at the gate), the big live attraction of Keith Sweat being supplemented by the James Taylor Quartet plus PAs by Karyn White, Kym MazeIle, d. mob, Adrenalin MOD, Electra, Jazz & The Brothers Grimm, Heaven & Earth, Troop, Reid, while Tim Westwood’s Saturday night rap special will feature the Ruthless Rap Assassins, plus hopefully Salt-n-Pepa and Kid ‘N’ Play … 4am is the new closedown time on both nights … Chris Hill and Robbie Vincent running a soul room to counter the inevitable acid overkill elsewhere – however, care is being taken to ensure that not every room is playing the same music (Kev Hill has declared himself an acid free zone!) … Bobby Brown and Cherrelle are already being mooted as the possible stars at the next Easter Prestatyn, while this one might just be graced by the surprise appearance of singing twanger surnamed Benson (but I didn’t tell you that, OK?)! … Stock Aitken Waterman and Bananarama, or their “pop dance” equivalents, will be collecting awards in a separate ceremony to the “black dance” acts at the 1989 International DJ Convention, thus preventing any ugly clash as occurred this year, the Disco Mix Club organised event taking place in London next March with an opening party and pop awards on Sunday 12th at the Hippodrome, all day seminar and World Mixing eliminations on Monday 13th at Leicester Square’s Empire, and Technics World DJ Mixing finals and black awards on Tuesday 14th at the Royal Albert Hall … Virgin seem to have snapped up the Ronald Burrell created Bäs Noir import hit, presumably to keep everything in the family … Phase II ‘Reachin’’ has been temporarily deleted to build up sales demand to help it cross over when put back in the shops … Republic Records are releasing here the months old but still much played Turntable Orchestra ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me‘, from US Music Village Records, out separately although promoed back-to-back with Kym Mazelle ‘I’m A Lover‘, one of Marshall Jefferson’s earlier productions by her on Lower Level Records … Robert Clivilles & David Cole may have signed to Breakout as The Brat Pack for ‘Do It Properly Part II‘, but they’ve also signed to Syncopate under the old name of 2 Puerto Ricans A Blackman And A Dominican! … Damon Rochefort is behind the controversial Mr E ‘Don’t Believe The Hype‘, so far only one solitary acetate which shuttles between Jeff Young and Pete Tong for radio play, being an acid track that samples Sir Alistair Burnett and the recent ITN ‘News At Ten’ report on acid house … Les Adams is remixing Maurice Joshua ‘This Is Acid’ … MCA Records have serviced a 33⅓rpm five track promo of the buoyant trotting 116bpm Mac Band featuring The McCampbell Brothers ‘Jealous (Remix)‘, ahead of November 14 release here — the label has also launched a ‘Sunset Sound of L.A.’ album series, compiling recent UK and US issued singles (regardless of whether recorded in Los Angeles) which readers of this column will know … Ben Liebrand’s Summer ’88 Remix of the Four Seasons featuring Frankie Valli ‘Oh What A Night (December, 1963)’ turns out here as in Holland to be on br. music (1245277, via Prism Leisure Corporation) … Jive have added the She Rockers to a roster that already includes the Wee Papa Girl Rappers … Sleeping Bag Records’ UK launch party was definitely the hottest ticket in town last week (in fact to get in you had to wear a special T-shirt!), everyone being there to make it a pleasant social occasion, but as a music showcase it never took off (although people appreciated the house and rap sets spun by Graeme Park and Tim Westwood) … Dance Aid has finally been given full charitable status by the Charity Commissioners … Westside Records owners Jacqueline and Morgan Khan are the proud parents of two month old Fallon Jasmine Khan, while Breakout’s label manager Mike Sefton is anticipating imminent fatherhood too … Harrow’s Jon Jules had his £1,100 mobile yuppie ‘phone stolen out of his bag while travelling on the tube, and had to fork out for another one, all on top of moving house and finding the ceiling leaks … Virgin’s club plugger Clare Shave had all her belongings swiped at the Rockley Sands weekender, including all her personal telephone contact numbers, and would appreciate being reinformed about people’s private numbers (the sort that wouldn’t be on official file) … I hear that everyone sat on the floor at Rockley Sands when Nicky Holloway started to play acid house — so thankfully the backlash against the commercialisation of “acieed” has begun, just as happens whenever any sort of underground music crosses over — and also that Gary Haisman of d. mob apparently had something against his allocated caravan! … Top Shop has just banned the sale of “Smiley” T-shirts … Pete Haigh (Blackpool), boosting garage and street soul, observes that he saw drugs ruin the northern soul scene in 1974-6, and the backlash then became jazz/funk! … Jeff Thomas’s Mondays at Martha’s Vineyard remain unchanged while as of the opening night this Thursday (27), he crosses the road in Swansea to join Peter Helyer on Thurs/Fri/Saturdays at the newly refurbished Ritzy (formerly Mayfair) … Liverpool “urban funk band” Raw Unlimited play with DJ Desa this Thursday (27) at the Bassment, inside the Comet car park behind Hamilton Square station in Birkenhead — in which town on Monday (31) The Defhouse Twenty Four is at Atmosphere with Desa, Kenni James, Dave Ralph and PAs by Projection, Children Of The Night, Hit & Run … Eartha Kitt is a delighted Norman Scott’s special Hallowe’en guest on Monday (31) at London’s Bang … Steven Danté’s progress in The Club Chart with ‘Imagination’, as of last week, had the neat symmetry: 77 – 38 -30 – 38 – 77 … NANU NANU!

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TODD TERRY (pictured here for the first time in rm) got behind the decks at the Wag during Sleeping Bag Records’ UK launch party last week, and mixed up all his hot floor filling productions. It would be nice to say that the result was an event to remember, but in truth, and sadly, it was about as interesting and exciting as hearing any DJ in any club anywhere mixing the same records (which, let’s face it, you are likely to encounter everywhere right now).

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Les Adams dropped to one knee bearing a bunch of red roses at his L.A. Mix partner Emma Freilich’s 21st birthday, and said, “I haven’t got you a present, so instead, will you marry me?” Shocked and delighted, Emma luckily answered “Yes!” All together now, “ahh…”

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HOT VINYL

THE TODD TERRY PROJECT ‘Weekend (Club Version)’ (Sleeping Bag Records UK SBUK 1T, via The Cartel)
The hottest import for a while is due out here next week, this Class Action girls sampling (0-)122⅔-122¾-122⅔-122¾-0bpm jerkily jumping canterer having proved bigger than the now B-sided Third World ‘Now That We Found Love’ pulsed and other samples zapped jittery leaping instrumental 121⅓-121⅔-0bpm ‘Just Wanna Dance (Club Version)‘ (Radio Versions too).

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT ‘It’s A Trip (Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out)’ (Jive JIVE T 189)
Kool Kat recorded very calculatedly commercial frantic twittering and jittering acid bubbler from Manchester, borrowing d. mob’s “acieed!” chant and the Fini Tribe’s ‘De Testimony’ chimes, in 127bpm Hacienda and Instrumental Mixes, 0-126bpm Killer Instrumental Mix, likely to do well in the current crossover climate without winning any marks for originality.

BIG DADDY KANE ‘Set It Off (Extended Mix)’ (Cold Chillin’ W76761)
Finally out commercially, this Marley Marl produced/remixed excitingly churning drums throbbed (0-)116¼bpm new wave rap swirler has a naggingly repeated piercing tinny guitar noise that’s even more brain chewing than Public Enemy’s noises (fast talking 0-118⅔bpm LP version too, and tricky fatback funk drummed dubwise 98½-0bpm Bobby Byrd-cutting ‘Get Into It‘). Continue reading “October 29, 1988: The Todd Terry Project, Children Of The Night, Big Daddy Kane, The Real Roxanne, Young M.C.”

BEATS & PIECES

Todd Terry, Just-Ice, KRS-One and Cash Money join DJs Tim Westwood, Colin Faver, Danny Rampling, Kid Batchelor and Mixmaster Tee tonight (Tuesday 18th) at London’s Wag for the UK launch of Sleeping Bag Records, operating here out of Mervyn Anthony’s front room (on 01-637 5277) as an independent label distributed by Rough Trade – so the Todd Terry Project won’t be on Westside Records after all! … The Real Roxanne ‘Respect’/’Her Bad Self’, reviewed last week on import, has already been rushed here on promo by Cooltempo (COOLX 176), both sides being ½bpm slower … ffrr snapped up Marshall Jefferson presents Truth ‘Open Our Eyes’ … I had to rush a couple of last week’s import reviews (to get any in at all, whereas this week there isn’t room for all that I’ve done!), and on closer examination only the X Rated Movie mix of Jamie Principle is 118¾-0bpm, the other three being 118⅔bpm, while only the A-side mixes of MC Bam Bam are 111⅓bpm, his B-side’s being 111⅔bpm, and the R&B Club Versions of Back To Back are 109⅚-0bpm (niggling inaccuracies maybe, but my reputation is at stake) … Tricky Dicky Scanes’ Balearic top 10 sales chart (third time lucky?) omitted the numbers, 7 Amnesia ‘Ibiza’ (Belgian InDisc), 8 Hong Kong Syndikat ‘Too Much’ (E&F Records) … The Mafia’s ‘The Scene Of The Crime’ megamix is underpinned by Maze’s ‘Twilight’, with repeated bursts of The Incredible Mr Freeze’s “I wanna go back, back to the scene of the crime”, before a ‘Joy And Pain’ finale – OK? … Steady B’s promo pressing was mis-labelled, the B-side vocal Extended Remix being 104bpm and Instrumental 103⅚bpm … Jellybean Johnson, not John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez, is the confusingly credited guitarist on Pia Zadora’s ‘Dance Out Of My Head’ … Jellybean Benitez’s previously unavailable percussively lurching 116½-0bpm remix of ‘Love Will Save The Day’ has now been added to 12 inch copies of Whitney Houston’s ‘One Moment In Time’ … Hazell Dean’s seven inch version of ‘Turn It Into Love’ is now on 12 inch flipped by Les Adams’ 0-115…133bpm ‘Megamix’ of her past hits (EMI 12EMX71) … Graeme Park turns out to have produced the Rose Windross vocal version seven inch of Adrenalin MOD ‘O-O-O’ (re-edited by someone else with his dub version to make the new 12 inch), plus he’ll produce the follow-up … Original Concept ‘Charlie Sez’ and Ice-T ‘Grand Larceny’ both sample Coldcut’s ‘That Greedy Beat’ (but didn’t that in turn have something to do with ‘Get On The Good Foot’?) … Ben Liebrand’s 1988 remix of the Four Seasons featuring Frankie Valli ‘Oh What A Night (December 1963)’, reviewed some time ago on import, seems now to be out here on a label called Prism Leisure Corporation … GLR (Greater London Radio), as BBC Radio London is in the process of becoming, will not be completely soulless after all, Dave Pearce being retained for a Monday-Thursday 7-10pm dance music show and a Sunday 8-10bpm rap slot … Radio 1 DJ Bruno Brookes is another who seems to think the current craze is “acid rock”! … Dancin’ Danny D on TV – yippee! (or, acieed!) … NANU NANU!

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HOT VINYL

KYM MAZELLE ‘Useless (I Don’t Need You Now)’ (Syncopate 12 SYDJ 18)
Perhaps the culmination of all his house and soul fusing production work with the likes of Ten City, this Marshall Jefferson created glorious wailing and nagging canterer has been previewed on promo as a lavishly gatefolded twin-pack, the two singles being released to the public separately in consecutive weeks, first out being Marshall’s own The Windy City Mixes (Syncopate 12SY 18) in piano churned bouncy 118⅔bpm 12” Mix, vocally doodling 118⅔bpm Ad Lib Dub, and less resonant 118⅚bpm Deep House mix versions, much weightier and more densely textured than Clivilles & Cole’s alternative The Big Apple Mixes (Syncopate 12YX 18), in lightly rambling 120-0bpm Fierce Club, jittery electronic 120½bpm Dub, and better ‘Set It Off/Twilight’-type bubbled really wailing 120⅓bpm After Hours Club versions (the promo adds radio mixes and an acappella too). Above all, let’s not forget the superb gutsy vocal performance of Kym, who gives all she’s got even when just vamping the title line over and over.

BÄS NOIR ‘My Love Is Magic (Club Mix)’ (US nugroove NG 003)
Ronnie Burrell (of the Burrell twins) created terrific piano pattered and wailing girls gurgled see-sawing 123-0bpm percussive bumpy bounder, maybe more garage or even Latin than strictly house in approach but very exciting, and all without a trace of acieed (dub/edit flip). Get right on one, chummy!

DE LA SOUL ‘Jenifa (Taught Me)’ (US Tommy Boy TB 917)
“This song does not contain explicit lyrics but the thought is erotic, oh baby!” preambled, nervily jittering and swirling but quite casually spoken (0-)119-0bpm exciting “new wave” psychedelic rap, another fresh direction as was ‘Follow The Leader’, coupled in an agreeably freaky package by the lazily chatting and — would you believe? — yodelling 0-93-0bpm ‘Potholes In My Lawn‘ (instrumentals too). Forget acieed, “This is the daisy age”! Continue reading “October 22, 1988: Kym Mazelle, Bäs Noir, De La Soul, 3D, Dee Dee Wilde”

BEATS & PIECES

Champion Records, at my suggestion, could be issuing all their previously released Todd Terry productions as both a “best of” cassette and boxed 12 inch set – the label has also beaten off the rest of the pack to pick up Sugar Bear ‘Don’t Scandalize Mine’ … Royal House will be touring here early next month … Tricky Dicky Scanes’ Balearic Top 10 sales chart last week omitted two numbers, 7 Amnesia, incidentally, qualifies in Belgium itself as “New Beat”, an example of that country’s current new music scene, another upcoming one to look for apparently being The Maxx ‘Cocaine’ … William Pitt ‘City Lights’, on closer examination of the currently reissued UK pressing, turns out to be 103⅓-103⅔bpm and its instrumental 103⅙-104⅓bpm – with, coincidentally (or not?), a huskily muttered atmosphere that now sounds remarkably similar to the obviously more recent Robbie Robertson hit, ‘Somewhere Down The Crazy River’ … Polydor’s commercial release of the Osmonds’ ‘One Bad Apple’ is, you must realise, only the original version, not the white labelled “illegal” megamix that was recently reviewed … Phil Harding & Ian Curnow have followed their old and new Four Tops remixes by doing the same for Diana Ross, their current ‘Mr Lee’ mix being rivalled soon by a remix of ‘Love Hangover’ on Motown … Shep Pettibone has remixed George Benson’s ‘Twice The Love’ album title track … I must apologise to UK record companies that so few of their releases have been reviewed, the trouble is they are putting out too darned many at the moment (I haven’t had time to review eight import singles that I actually bought, either), and my having a humdinger of a cold for over a week hasn’t helped – however, just count up all the individual BPMs that are in this issue and you’ll see that, at an average four minutes for each one, my time has been full … US albums I haven’t had time to review include Vesta Williams ‘Vesta 4 U’ (A&M), Cheryl Pepsii Riley ‘Me Myself And I’ (Columbia), Midnight Star ‘Midnight Star’ (Solar), Kenny G ‘Silhouette’ (Arista) – check The Club Chart as always for BPMs … while US albums that were reviewed in full and are now out here include Royal House ‘Can You Party?’ (Champion CHAMP 1017), Karyn White ‘Karyn White’ (Warner Bros WX235) … Motown are bringing over The Boys for exposure on kids’ TV at the beginning of November … Everton Webb is expanding his club, radio and shop promotions list at Sidestep Promotions, which although closely linked to the Kool Kat label actually operates independently, plugging other people’s product too, at Studio House, 10 Bishopgate Street, Birmingham, West Midlands B15 1ET (021-643 6584) … Supreme Records – and this is not an invitation to join their mailing list! – are now at 1a Waterlow Road, London N19 5JN (01-281 6292) … Islington Music Workshop – home of the I-M-W label – at 44 Peartree Street, London EC1V 3SB (01-608 0231) is about to start new low cost courses for students of 24 track recording, sampling/programming/scratching, and electronic music (call for details now) … Japanese TV filmed DJs Norman Scott and Jamie Peters and their gay audience at London’s Bang! for a prime time magazine programme, and when asked why they had chosen that over any other London club, the crew answered “Because Bang! is world famous” … Thames Television likewise filmed Streatham’s Project at Zigi’s for last Monday’s ‘Reporting London’, but inevitably were investigating the acid house/ecstasy connection, drawing from DJ Paul Oakenfold the comment, “The original scene was not based on drugs, it never was” … ITN had filmed Jon Jules’ acid Thursday at Ealing’s Broadway Boulevard, and a warehouse party, for last Tuesday’s news reports, for similar reasons (Richard Branson talked about “acid rock” – maybe he should stick to ballooning now?) … Chris Paul has started “static house” Mondays at London’s drugs-free Camden Palace – I gave you the whisper about “static house” some weeks back, stay tuned for more details … Mark Summers (Braintree Fantasy, Sudbury Hippodrome) observes that most dancers requesting “acid” cannot actually name any individual artists or titles when asked, answering “I dunno who or what it’s called, just any acid!” – this lack of identity must explain where there have been so few acid hits, and why even DJs tend to buy anything that’s safely labelled with the word “acid” in the title … Mr Lee PAs at Swansea’s Martha’s Vineyard next Monday (October 17) … Tim Westwood has left South Harrow’s Bogarts, where Chad Jackson joins Jon Jules on hip hop Sundays now … Radio Luxembourg has increased its soul output at the weekend, from midnight to 3am every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night … Full Force’s deliberate application of crackling surface noise over James Brown’s ‘Static’ seems to have started a fashion for other productions to emphasise their scratch mix origins by using purposefully crackling old records, The Real Roxanne’s ‘Her Bad Self (The Posse Mix)’ and I.S.P. ‘I’m On A Roll’ being some of the latest examples … Les Adams gets kids hanging around outside his house listening to all the acid remixes he’s doing as they seep (that’s a joke – roar, more like) through his studio window, and now the kids have started knocking on the door to ask for requests! … Simon Harris won the World Yo-Yo Championships back in 1975, and remains the champ as there hasn’t been another championship contest since! … NANU NANU!

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HOT VINYL

THE REAL ROXANNE ‘Respect’ (US Select FMS 62318)
Exploding on import, this Hitman Howie Tee produced bassily rumbling 112-0bpm scratchy scolding rap-jitterer (111⅚-0bpm Instrumental) keeps dropping into Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ with Dee Dee Scott recreating the vocal. and a guy complaining “I tell you I can’t relax, you know”, the Jam Master Jay and L.A. Posse produced 0-104½bpm ‘Her Bad Self‘ flip (in three mixes) being based all the way through on the Average White Band’s ‘Pick Up The Pieces’, which may not be entirely original right now but sounds useful.

ORIGINAL CONCEPT ‘Charlie Sez’ (Def Jam 653032 6)
Often imitated in their absence, the wrecking krew return on a hot three-tracker with this raucously shouted then fast talked wordy 0-106⅙-0bpm scrubbingly scratched bumpily lurching chugger full of frenetic though contained activity, flipped by the jumpily jittering 110⅔bpm ‘Runnin Yo’ Mouth‘ and nervy break beat nagged 108⅔bpm ‘Gottanotha Funky Break 4-U -> Hit It!’, all equally good with perhaps the flipside pair being strongest.

THE BRAT PACK ‘So Many Ways (Do It Properly Part II)’ (Breakout USAT 646)
UK copies of the Robert Clivilles & David Cole created dementedly frantic continuation of their 2 Puerto Ricans A Blackman And A Dominican jack track have just the shouting “oh you bastard, come here by my side, listen honey, listen baby, don’t be so f***in’ serious!” started (0-)122⅓-122¼bpm Worldwide DJ Anthem (ending in female groaning that sounds as if it’s from the Chakachas’ ‘Jungle Fever’), scratching 123⅓-0bpm TT’s Bitten Again Dub and percussive 122¼-122bpm Worldwide B-Boy Killer Anthem versions. Continue reading “October 15, 1988: The Real Roxanne, Original Concept, The Brat Pack, Big Lady K, Jamie Principle”

BEATS & PIECES

NETWORK PRESS’s Hamburg party for DJs featured a long acid house session by the now truly international London jock Colin Faver, before slumping into boring doldrums until the London lads came to the aid of the party again, Les Adams and Simon Harris following each other with 15 minute mixing sets that they made sure everyone could hear — Les had taken to use in Germany a prototype set (the first in Britain) of Stanton’s 890AL DJ Pro cartridges and styli, designed with his and other DJs’ input especially for scratch mixers, both he and Simon remarking that they performed superbly with not a single jump or miscue during fierce use … Ben Liebrand’s remix of Bill Withers ‘Lovely Day’ is called the Sunshine Mix with good reason, it borrows the drums from San Antonio, Texas, born but now Germany based Sydney Youngblood’s similar earlier treatment of ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’! … Charles Edward Shaw, from Houston, Texas, although based in Mannheim for the last 10 years, actually did the rapping bits in Milli Vanilli’s ‘Girl You Know It’s True’, and says his own imminent ‘Does Your Mother Know‘ on German Musicolor “will tell the truth” … Les Adams, confronted by a D and an H on two separate doors when looking for the loo, had to come back and ask which was Ladies and which was Gents (Damen and Herren)! … Simon Harris ‘Here Comes That Sound’ has actually come out in Germany on Metronome ahead of the UK, where its commercial release will eventually be as a total remix … Adrenalin M.O.D.’s slightly retitled ‘O-O-O-O‘ has been promoed as a (0-)122¾bpm seven inch radio version (MCA Records RAGA 2) ahead of new 12 inch pressings, now featuring vocals by Rose Windross (of Soul II Soul fame) as well as its Serious Intention derived title line hook chant … Wee Papa Girl Rappers ‘Wee Rule’, now that it’s finally released, turns out to be subtitled the Ragamuffin Mix — and I realise should actually be 0-94-95¾-95½-0bpm instead of the constant speed originally assumed — with the funky 0-114bpm ‘Rebel Rap‘ as flip … Hot Mix 5 Inc’s various artists import ‘Acid’ LP has been released here as ‘Acid House‘ on Jack Trax (DOT 1), with the same tunes apart from Fingers’ ‘Ecstasy’ being replaced by Armando’s smurfs started twittery 124½bpm ‘Confusion’s Revenge‘ … K-tel’s ‘The Coolest Cuts’ Shakatak compilation LP (NE 1422) includes a ‘Down On The Street’-based 121¾-0bpm ‘Shakatak Megamix’ bonus 12 inch … Pete Tong’s soul show on Capital Radio now runs from 5-8pm every Saturday, incorporating a realistic “street sales” top 10 (about time too), while Tim Westwood follows from 8-10pm (plus he has an extended midnight-1.30am Friday night slot) with his rap cuts, David Rodigan’s reggae filling 10pm-midnight before Alex ‘Anders’ George spins funk/soul/jazz through Sunday’s wee small hours from midnight-4am, Chris Forbes starting a new house show on Saturday mornings 1.30-4am (following on from Tim) … Greg Edwards has recorded a rap revival of Instant Funk ‘Got My Mind Made Up’, due out as by the Ambassadors Of Funk initially in the US on Next Plateau Records Inc! … Fourth & Broadway have signed up the Delicious Vinyl label here and are rush releasing Young MC ‘Know How‘ as UK A-side, with a live showcase of the label’s acts being planned to follow … Westside Records appear to be releasing The Todd Terry Project’s double-sided import smash here … Blaze ‘Can’t Win For Losin’’ turns out not to be released commercially here until November 7 … Public Enemy could be heading for a personnel change, inside sources suggest … Mantronik is looking for a new rapper now that his Mantronix partner MC Tee has joined the US Air Force … Graham Central Station have reformed to make a comeback album on Preston Glass’s label, Gourmet Records … Tricky Dicky Scanes is selling so much Balearic material (to all types of DJ) at his Trax record shop in Soho’s Greek Street that he can compile an accurate and genuine sales chart, the big hits over the last fortnight being 1 William Pitt ‘City Lights‘ (Sierra), 2 Code 61 ‘Drop The Deal‘ (German BCM), 3 Bappi Lahiri ‘Habiba‘ (Hi-Hat), 4 Fantasy Ten ‘Big Bang‘ (Greyhound), 5 Mandy ‘I Just Can’t Wait (Cool & Breezy Jazz Mix)‘ (PWL), 6 Tijeritas ‘Bamboleo‘ (Spanish Epic), 7 Electra ‘Jibaro (Remix)‘ (ffrr), 10 Project Club ‘Dance With The Devil‘ (Supreme) [#8 & #9 not printed – see comments] … ffrr’s ‘Balearic Beats Vol. 1‘ compilation LP (FFRLP 5) contains previously reviewed (and some charted above) material by Electra, Code 61, Beats Workin’, Mandy Smith, Nitzer Ebb, Fini Tribe and the Thrashing Doves, plus unreviewed (although doubtless I’ll get around to them all, especially if, as seems likely, the set hits The Club Chart) tracks by the Residents, Woodentops, and Enzo Avitabile … Vanessa Holmes has taken over from Zoe Glitherow at WEA as Fred Dove’s club promotion co-ordinator — Zoe is joining Mike Olivier to help run the new Middlesex Sound Installations in Rayners Lane, Harrow … Marie Birch of Sound Promotions has been suffering from chicken pox, which has kept DJs at more than arm’s length, and, seemingly always on the move, she’s now based at 17 Scott Crescent, South Harrow. Middlesex (01-723 8092) … Dean Meredith is updating the DJ mailing list at Blue Chip, 4 Gaol Mews, Gaol Road, Stafford … Imagination are live this Wednesday (5) at Darlington’s Zhivagos, where DJ and promotions manager Jack Wood offers (on 0325-463647, office hours) to organise club tours in the area for record companies trying to break new acts … Fantasy Mondays now at Brighton’s Pink Coconut feature acid, Balearic, house and garage with Paul Clark, Warrick and Craig … Will Downing has been added to the bill for the Blackpool soul weekender … Les Adams has remixed Blow ‘Change (Makes You Want To Hustle)’, bringing out the tune more … Rayners Lane’s Record & Disco Centre salesman Wayne Boyce came up with a killer mix, repeatedly flicking the synth bits from This Ain’t Chicago’s Acid Not Placid mix through Inner City’s ‘Big Fun’ … Paul Rutherford seemed to begin, so far as The Club Chart was concerned, as another East Midlands breakout … Disco Mix Club boss Tony Prince has finally followed my lead and bought a Cannon EOS 650 autofocus camera for trouble free shooting in the dark! … 1988 looks like being a vintage year for future rare grooves, as you can be sure that in a few years’ time, when the second hand bins will be jammed with drastically dated sounding and unwanted acid house, everyone will be paying inflated paces for all the good non-acid stuff that they missed at the time, now, just like the Seventies were later plundered by the first wave of rare groove seekers … Royal Mail deliveries are still far from back to normal, so don’t forget you can FAX us your DJ charts on 01-388 9576… NANU NANU!

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RITZY CRACKER

PHIL FRANCE, resident DJ at The Ritzy in Nottingham, celebrated the Mecca venue’s second anniversary by once again honouring some of the previous year’s most important contributors to dance music. Last year it was Stock Aitken Waterman who were honoured, Pete Waterman and Matt Aitken turning up with Rick Astley, Sinitta and Mandy Smith, all of whom put on crowd pleasing performances, as you might imagine.

This year, for excellent musical reasons, Phil chose to honour Coldcut along with the Ahead Of Our Time and Big Life labels. Unfortunately, these fledgling labels do not so far have much of an artist roster, and, as Yazz (whose appearance would obviously have been greatly appreciated by the Nottingham crowd) was tied up in the studio that night recording her album, it was just Coldcut’s Jonathon More and Matt Black who appeared fleetingly to collect their award. Installed only hours before, a 25 screen video wall was able to show their singles, but this was a poor substitute for live performances.

JOHN PAUL BARRETT

Luckily Westside Records artiste John Paul Barrett was on hand for a vigorous personal appearance. Sabrina had been expected, but (as the tabloid press had already announced) was laid up ill, while Germany’s chart-topping Milli Vanilli had come along for the bus ride incognito, without their stage wear, and refused to go on. So, a bit of a damp squib in comparison with last year’s glitzy affair, the night turned into a regular disco session despite the resplendent presence of both the Mayor and Sheriff Of Nottingham, plus all the Mecca bigwigs. It’s bad luck Phil didn’t manage to get Yazz, at least.

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HAMBURG HI-JINKS

NETWORK PRESS, Germany’s fortnightly DJ magazine (in which I write a column), celebrated its 50th issue last Monday with a party in Hamburg at a dub called Base. I wasn’t thinking of going to it until I discovered just the night before that Les Adams and Emma Freilich of LA Mix were doing a mixing set there, so we flew over together —and discovered on the same plane Simon Harris, Steven Danté, Baby Ford, and Colin Faver! As you can imagine the British contingent had a fine old time, joining up also with Simon’s Music Of Life label partner Chris France, and BCM Records owner Brian Carter, while Jellybean was also hangin’ out. For further titbits, see Beats & Pieces.

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BRIAN CARTER – the Germany based Englishman whose two years old BCM Records pioneered the Compact Disc release of “house” and other dance music styles, before securing a German number one and European smash with B.V.S.M.P.

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HOT VINYL

THOMPSON TWINS ‘In The Name Of Love ’88 (Railroad Mix)’ (Arista 611 808)
Shep Pettibone’s spurtingly smacking and funkily rolling 116¼-0bpm remix of this early Thompsons track borrows its pulsing bassline from Ten City’s ‘Right Back To You’ and has surprised everyone (Arista included) by being snapped up by house jocks the instant it appeared on import (only the Railroad Dub flips it here). A national smash!

PUBLIC ENEMY ‘Night Of The Living Baseheads (Anti-High Blood Pressure Encounter Mix)’ (Def Jam  XPR 1389)
Due for full review when out properly on four-track 12 inch, their album’s hottest floor-filler is initially on just this violently scratched jiggly churning 104¼-104½-0-104½bpm new version on white label promo.

kc FLIGHTT ‘She’s Sexxxy’ (US RCA 8730-1-RD)
With a tempo that’ll help it in house venues too, this jazz-funkily bounding drawlingly conversational rap, about foxy fine ladies and the fun you can get into with them, is in kc’s own 122½-0bpm mix and Blaze’s more dubwise 121½-0bpm Rated X Mix, flipped by the Blaze co-produced similar bounding (0-)123½bpm ‘Dancin’ Machine‘ and the more messily wriggling urgent 0-122½bpm ‘Let’s Get Jazzy‘. Continue reading “October 8, 1988: Thompson Twins, Public Enemy, KC Flightt, The Mack featuring Tim Bryant, Luther Vandross”

BEATS & PIECES

THE RITZY in Nottingham last year celebrated its birthday by ferrying a coach load of PWL stars and staff to its party, and likewise this last Friday it was the turn of the Big Life and Ahead Of Our Time labels’ entourage to head north, with myself in tow (so there could be a picture story about it all next week) … Clubnet are updating. area by area, their club, radio and specialist record store promotional lists (on 01-968 9661) … 18-years-old Jason Davies of the Mixbusters has just joined Champion Records in A&R, production and promotion capacities (someone else makes the tea!) … ‘Sharp As A Knife (Acid Attack)‘ is the official title of Jon Williams’ Remix 88 Update now that Brandon Cooke featuring Roxanne Shanté is on proper Club black label promo … Eric B & Rakim’s commercial 12 inch here will have the already promoed FON Force mix of ‘Put Your Hands Together’, the about to be also separately promoed Humphrey Bogart “play it!” introed and then acieed siren overlaid jittery (0-)112bpm alternative Parkside Mix by Graeme Park, and (the US A-side) a Red Alert mix of ‘Microphone Fiend‘ … Stetsasonic’s Brooklyn Mix is indeed still ‘Expansions’ based but also drops in some organ from ‘Love is The Message’, not that it’s very obvious … Arista have woken up to the import buzz on Shep Pettibone’s Railroad Mix of the Thompson Twins ‘In The Name Of Love’, and have promoed it here ahead of the now brought forward UK release … Stevie Wonder’s ‘My Eyes Don’t Cry‘, the now Timmy Regisford remixed track from ‘Characters’ (one of the two which were only ever on CD and cassette versions of the album), was reviewed as an import last week and is already on 0-115⅔bpm UK promo (Motown ZT 42260) … Champion have snapped up Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk presents Ricky Dillard ‘As Always‘ before even the US Trax imports have come in, be advised … Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud’s BPMs got confused in last week’s review, 102bpm ‘I’m Back’ and 105½bpm ‘Girls Act Stupid-aly’ being correct … US albums reviewed on import and now out here include Perri ‘The Flight’ (MCA Records MCF 6035), Scott White ‘Success … Never Ends’ (RCA PL90246), Chapter 8 ‘Forever’ (Capitol EST 2073), and Vanessa Williams ‘The Right Stuff’ (Wing Records/Polydor WNGLP 1) … Adonis ‘Acid Poke‘ will be third of the house releases on Fiction Records’ new label, Desire … New York’s Tuff City label is re-releasing the back-to-back “old school classics”, T-Ski Valley ‘Catch The Beat‘/Grand Groove Bunch ‘Catch The Groove‘, and Jimmy Spicer ‘Super Rhymes‘/Maximus Three ‘Rock It Out‘ … Westside Records here have just acquired UK rights to veteran Harlem record store owner Bobby Robinson’s influential Enjoy label and promise that a four album boxed set will include every one of its rap releases in original 12 inch versions … Janet Jackson is now definitely back in the studio with producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis recording her follow-up LP, scheduled tentatively for Easter release … Paul Hardcastle confesses to being behind the recent ‘Listen To This!‘ sampler by The DTI, one of the better ones, if you remember my review, not that many people bothered with it … Blaze apparently are not now signing to Warner Bros but seem likely to join either Motown or MCA Records … Aswad ‘The Message’, previously reviewed, is only their 12 inch A-side, the seven being topped by the former’s flip, the actually much more “message” like anti-apartheid South African flavoured disjointedly rambling 106⅔/53⅓bpm ‘Set Them Free‘ … Jim Mullen guests at the opening party night this Tuesday (27) of Stoke Newington High Street’s LA Prison, promising a policy of jazz, Latin, African and soca Tuesdays to Fridays every week … Thursday (29) is launch night at Harlow Mill’s Cheeks of the weekly Subculture, a new night for the old Sweat Box crowd with Kev Hill spinning funkier beats and female DJAJ the jazz and soul … London pirate DJ Darren Fogel got onto TV’s ‘Blind Date’ using his real name Darren James and daytime car dealer occupation, but subsequently has been planting sensational stories in the ‘The Sun’ exposing himself as a supposed sex fiend — all good publicity, of a sort, I suppose — in order to get extra disco gigs out of it! … M-D-Emm members Dave (Calling All Blonde Haired Lovelies) Lee and Mike (Attention You Dark Haired Darlings) Chill appear to be after penpals, or something, on 01-837 2322! … NANU NANU!

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I’m sorry if anyone read too much between the lines last week in the ‘Beats And Pieces’ item about Johnnie Walker and Chris Butler. My apologies for any embarrassment caused to both parties.

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HOT VINYL

THE TODD TERRY PROJECT ‘Just Wanna Dance’ (US Fresh Records FRE-80125)
Reaction seems fairly evenly divided for both excellent sides of this instant import smash, the nominal A-side being a Third World ‘Now That We Found Love’-pulsed 121⅔-122-0bpm jittery leaping instrumental groove overlaid by Afrika Bambaataa’s “naaaa” noise and much more in Todd’s typical sample-zapping style, while the Jimmy Castor introed B-side is a girls wailed jerkily cantering and jumping (0-)122¾-123-122¾-123-0bpm revival of Class Action’s ‘Weekend’, both very exciting (with radio versions too — and labels on the wrong sides, beware!).

ROB BASE & D.J. E-Z ROCK ‘It Takes Two’ (US Profile PRO-1267)
Hot though not entirely consistent rap album with the standout Todd Terry-ish (0-)118⅓bpm ‘Get On The Dance Floor’, a terrific house compatible combination of Black Riot’s ‘A Day In The Life’ and the Jacksons’ ‘Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)’, and Maze-based infectiously jumpy 109⅚bpm ‘Joy And Pain‘, well worded about being the new kid but no copyist, plus the Teddy Riley-arranged Marshall Jefferson ‘Move Your Body’-based 0-111bpm ‘Check This Out‘, Steve Miller Band ‘Fly Like An Eagle’-based sinuously jogging 100bpm tick tick tickin’ ‘Times Are Gettin’ Ill‘, ‘Ma Baker’ introed and Thin Lizzy ‘Johnny The Fox’-scratching enthusiastically lurching 0-99⅚bpm ‘Make It Hot‘, Lyn Collins ‘Think (About lt)’-based (0-)111½bpm title track hit, aggressively jolting 110⅓bpm ‘Don’t Sleep On It‘, frenetic 0-111bpm ‘Keep It Going Now‘, embarrassingly drippy rap ballad 36¼/72½bpm ‘Crush‘, and throwaway 113bpm ‘Creativity‘, a funky drummered tape looping tribute to Profile’s Brian Chin.

BLUE MODERNE ‘Do That Again (Club Version)’ (Atlantic A9045T)
Sultrily soulful Sandy Barber’s lsh Ledesma-produced attractive if slightly inconclusive 0-100⅔-0bpm solidly thudding roller became a real “sleeper” on import and is finally out here flipped (dub/edit too) by her album’s lovely tranquil smoochy 68bpm ‘Blue’, making good value. Continue reading “October 1, 1988: The Todd Terry Project, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, Blue Moderne, Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, Anita Baker”